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Benjamin  iatoton  B^tcrgtns 


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IN  MEMORIAM 


* 

BENJAMIN  LAWTON  WIGGINS 

VICE-CHANCELLOR 


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MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 


DELIVERED  AT  THE  SERVICES 
HELD  IN  ST.  AUGUSTINE’S  CHAPEL 
THURSDAY,  JUNE  17,  1909 
IN  MEMORY  OF 

BENJAMIN  LAWTON  WIGGINS 

M.  A. ,  LL.  D. 

VICE-CHANCELLOR  OF 
THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  THE  SOUTH 


* 


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THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS  OF 
SEWANEE  TENNESSEE 


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INTRODUCTION 


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INTRODUCTION 


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Benjamin  lawton  wiggins  was 

born  at  Sand  Ridge,  South  Carolina,  Sep¬ 
tember  11th,  1861,  the  son  of  James  and 
Elizabeth  B.  (Mellard)  Wiggins,  and  was  prepared 
for  College  in  the  Porter  Military  Academy, 
Charleston,  S.  C.  He  was  graduated  from  the 
University  of  the  South  in  1880,  received  his 
M.A.  degree  in  1882,  and  became  Professor  of 
Greek  the  same  year.  In  1883-84  he  took  a  post¬ 
graduate  course  in  Johns  Hopkins  University,  and 
in  1893  he  was  elected  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of  the  South. 

For  fourteen  years  he  administered  the  affairs  of 
the  University  with  consummate  vigor  and  ability; 
but  in  1907  he  began  to  show  symptoms  of  failing 
health,  due,  as  it  afterwards  transpired,  to  an  in¬ 
curable  disease  of  the  heart. 

Despite  his  daily  increasing  physical  weakness 
he  persisted  in  his  work;  and  when  the  Board  of 
Trustees  met,  June  12th,  1909,  he  insisted  upon 
appearing  before  them  and  reading  his  annual 
report. 

The  following  night,  Sunday,  June  13th,  he  had 
a  violent  seizure  and  the  next  day,  Monday,  June 
14th,  1909,  at  5  o’clock  p.m.  (at  the  very  moment 
when  his  friend,  who  had  consented  to  take  his 
place  temporarily,  was  making  his  speech  of  accep- 

[7] 


BENJAMIN  LAWTON  WIGGINS 


tance  to  the  Board),  Dr.  Wiggins  quietly  passed 
away. 

The  body  was  taken  to  the  University  Chapel  at 
7  a.m.  on  Wednesday,  June  16th,  and  lay  there  in 
state  attended  by  a  Guard  of  Honor.  At  7 :30 
a.m.  there  was  a  celebration  of  the  Holy  Com¬ 
munion,  at  which  the  Chancellor  of  the  University 
officiated.  At  5  p.m.  the  first  part  of  the  Burial 
Office  was  read  in  the  Chapel  by  the  Bishops  of 
Atlanta  and  Florida,  and  the  Bishop  of  Tennessee, 
the  Chancellor,  took  the  Service  at  the  grave. 

Special  trains  came  from  Nashville,  Chattanooga, 
and  intermediate  points,  bringing  many  friends 
and  representatives  of  organizations  of  which  Dr. 
Wiggins  was  a  member. 

On  Thursday  morning,  June  17th,  the  Com¬ 
mencement  exercises  took  place  in  the  Chapel, 
without  the  accustomed  speeches  ;  and  diplomas, 
degrees  and  prizes  were  conferred. 

At  11  a.m.  a  Memorial  Service  was  held  at 
which  seven  Bishops  were  present,  and  many 
clergy  and  laymen,  both  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
and  of  the  Diocese  of  Tennessee,  of  which  diocese 
Dr.  Wiggins  had  been  a  representative  in  the 
General  Convention  for  fourteen  years. 

The  Chaplain  of  the  University,  the  Rev. 
A.  R.  Gray,  read  the  Creed  and  Prayers,  and  the 
four  addresses  here  printed  were  delivered  ;  the 
first  by  the  Chancellor ;  the  second  by  the  Bishop 

[8] 


INTRODUCTION 


of  South  Carolina,  representing  the  Board  of  Trus¬ 
tees  ;  the  third  by  the  Bishop  of  Mississippi, 
representing  the  Alumni ;  and  the  fourth  by  the 
Rev.  W.  P.  DuBose,  S.T.D.,  representing  the 
Hebdomadal  Board  of  the  University. 

In  conclusion  the  great  congregation  united  with 
the  Chancellor  in  the  recitation  of  the  Lesser  Litany. 

Pretiosa  in  conspectu  Domini  Mors  Sanctorum . 


[9] 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  RIGHT  REVEREND 
THOMAS  FRANK  GAILOR,  S.T.D.,  D.D., 
BISHOP  OF  TENNESSEE  AND  CHAN¬ 
CELLOR  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  GAILOR 


* 


HIS  University  has  been  created  out  of  the 


lives  of  men.  The  hopes  and  aspirations, 


the  thoughts  and  purposes,  the  sacrifices 
and  self-denials,  of  human  souls  have  fed  and 
nourished  and  sustained  it  until  now;  and,  when 
from  time  to  time  it  has  had  to  say  “Good-bye” 
to  one  of  its  loved  and  loving  ones,  it  has  straight¬ 
way  felt  in  its  blood  the  new  vital  force,  which 
the  spent  life  had  contributed  to  it. 

And  once  more  Sewanee  has  had  to  stand  by  a 
new-made  grave  and  assert  her  faith.  Once  more 
the  Lord  God  has  seen  fit  to  test  the  quality  of 
her  spiritual  fibre,  and  to  put  on  trial  the  reality 
and  permanence  of  her  Christian  hope.  “Other 
foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid,  which 
is  Jesus  Christ.”  Brethren  :  the  fierce  assault  of 
bitter  and  stunning  grief  is  laying  bare  to-day  the 
bed-rock  of  that  Foundation.  If  it  is  sure,  we 
need  not  be  afraid. 

May  not  the  very  magnitude  of  our  bereavement 
be  taken  as  the  evidence  and  measure  of  our  Uni¬ 
versity’s  success  ?  For  the  great  and  noble  Vice- 
Chancellor,  whose  life  we  are  commemorating, 
was,  in  every  respect  of  mental,  moral  and  spiritual 
character,  a  product  of  Sewanee.  Only  forty 
years  has  the  University  of  the  South  been  in 
actual  existence,  and  yet,  in  that  short  time,  it  has 
borne  and  bred  a  son,  whose  trained  intellect, 
whose  scholarly  equipment,  whose  disciplined 


[13] 


BENJAMIN  LAWTON  WIGGINS 


character  and  lofty  ideals,  fitted  and  enabled  him, 
not  only  to  occupy,  but  to  fill,  the  place  of  a  leader 
to  his  own  Alma  Mater,  and  that  in  a  manner  and 
to  a  degree  worthy  of  her  most  exalted  and  exact¬ 
ing  traditions  and  standards. 

His  signal  ability  commanded  the  respect  and 
honor  of  the  world  of  learning.  His  unstudied 
and  unfailing  courtesy,  his  abounding  kindness,  his 
loving  heart,  his  refinement  of  manner  and  thought 
and  feeling,  consecrated  by  the  grace  of  God,  won 
for  him  a  great  army  of  friends,  who  mourn  for 
him  to-day  in  every  section  of  the  country  and  in 
every  condition  of  life. 

Lawton  Wiggins  was  a  rare  personality, — grace¬ 
ful  and  gracious,  sensitive  and  modest,  and  yet, 
with  it  all,  firm,  fearless,  masterful,  commanding. 
“His  strength  was  gentle,  his  gentleness  was 
strong.  ’  ’ 

To  this  University  he  gladly,  lovingly,  simply, 
utterly  gave  his  life.  From  that  purpose  he  never 
swerved.  Many  exceptional  offers  of  advance¬ 
ment,  many  invitations,  aye  even  urgent  appeals  — 
to  high  place  and  lucrative  office  elsewhere,  he  put 
aside  with  characteristic  persuasiveness  and  charm, 
resolute  in  his  faith.  He  believed  in  Sewanee. 
He  had  invincible  confidence  in  this  institution, — 
in  its  ideals  and  its  destiny.  And  he  being  dead 
yet  speaketh. 

Therefore  to-day  the  University,  which  made 
him  what  he  was  ;  which  for  nearly  thirty  stren¬ 
uous,  battling,  fruitful  years,  held  his  enthusiastic 

[14] 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  GAILOR 


and  complete  devotion;  that  University  has  cause 
to  thank  God  for  what  she  gave  our  people  in 
Doctor  Wiggins’  life  and  character,  and  to  look 
forward  into  the  future,  with  eyes,  tearful  indeed, 
but  undimmed  and  unafraid. 

Alas,  my  Brother:  I  look  back  to-day  through 
twenty-seven  years  of  interest  and  service  with 
him  for  this  University,  when  we  walked  together 
in  the  House  of  God  as  friends. 

And  —  I  shall  never  look  into  his  eyes  again  or 
clasp  his  hand  in  mine!  God  help  us;  How 
strange  and  sad  and  terrible  is  the  mystery  of 
death ! 

Yet  the  message  and  challenge  of  his  life  is 
plain.  We  shall  not  forget.  As  we  loved  him, 
we  shall  love  Sewanee.  For  him  the  struggle- 
storm  is  over  and  the  fever  past.  For  him  all  the 
burdens  have  been  lifted  and  all  the  problems 
solved : 

A  veil  betwixt  us  only;  he  in  the  light  serene, 

He  knows  how  sorrow  blossoms,  how  peace  is  won  from  pain. 

By  and  by  we  shall  meet  him,  and  be  with  him ; 
and  we  shall  tell  each  other  of  this  warfare  as  we 
dwell  together  in  God’s  peace. 


[15] 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  RIGHT  REVEREND 
THEODORE  DuBOSE  BRATTON,  D.D., 
BISHOP  OF  MISSISSIPPI,  ON  BEHALF 
OF  THE  ASSOCIATED  ALUMNI 


I 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  BRATTON 


* 


O  choose  for  one’s  self  early  in  life  an  ideal, 


and  to  strive  absorbingly  to  realize  it,  is  the 


first  necessary  step  toward  the  only  goal 
worth  attaining  in  this  life  —  viz.,  a  useful  life,  a 
life  of  ministry  for  God  and  for  one’s  fellow  man. 
The  choice  of  an  ideal  came  early  in  the  life  of 
our  beloved  Wiggins.  Certainly  it  would  have 
been  impossible  either  for  him  or  for  his  friends 
to  predict  the  wonderfully  complete  measure  of 
the  fulfillment  of  his  ideal  which  the  contempla¬ 
tion  of  his  life  to-day  reveals. 

I  remember  well  the  day  on  which  the  ‘ 4  Porter 
Boys,”  as  we  called  them,  arrived  on  the  Moun¬ 
tain,  for  that  day  marked  the  beginning  of  a  friend¬ 
ship  with  Wiggins  which  continued  to  grow  more 
and  more  into  loving  intimacy  and  confidence  as 
the  years  passed.  From  the  very  start  Wiggins, 
though  not  the  most  gifted  nor  the  brightest 
in  our  set,  was  easily  the  best  student,  and  soon 
rose  to  the  head  of  his  classes.  He  was  the 
steadiest,  the  most  regular,  the  most  painstaking 
student  I  ever  knew,  and  soon  became  the  most 
accurate  and  discriminating  classical  scholar  of  my 
day.  In  the  winter  of  1878  it  was  necessary  for 
me  to  remain  at  home  for  duty  during  the  last 
scenes  of  our  pitifully  tragic  Reconstruction  era  in 
my  native  State.  Returning  later,  my  former 
fellow-student  was  my  tutor  in  the  classics,  he 
having  been  selected  by  his  professor  for  this  duty. 


[19] 


BENJAMIN  LAWTON  WIGGINS 


This,  however,  did  not  in  any  way  interfere  with 
the  friendship  and  intimacy  which,  after  two  years 
of  interruption,  was  renewed  immediately.  It  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  as  I  look  back  thought¬ 
fully  upon  the  entire  period  of  my  student  life,  the 
verdict  of  my  experience  is  that  Wiggins  was  the 
peer  of  the  best  teachers  I  ever  knew.  The  boy 
of  the  ’70’s  had  ripened  into  the  young  man  of 
the  ’80’s,  his  habits  of  careful,  accurate  scholarship 
and  conscientious  attendance  upon  duty  fully  ma¬ 
tured.  The  compelling  sympathy  and  contagious 
enthusiasm  so  irresistible  to  his  pupils,  combined 
with  his  peculiar  aptness  to  teach,  made  him,  if  not 
the  very  best,  certainly  the  most  interesting  and 
inspiring  teacher  of  languages  I  ever  knew — and 
what  he  was  as  tutor  he  afterwards  became  in  the 
larger  sphere  of  professor.  It  was  this  remarkably 
successful  career  as  teacher,  and  the  unqualified 
sense  of  confidence  both  in  his  abilities  and  charac¬ 
ter  shared  by  all  his  former  fellow-students,  that 
combined  to  compass  his  election  to  the  Chair  of 
Ancient  languages  through  the  persistent  demand 
of  the  Alumni  which  would  not  be  stilled  until  the 
Trustees  acceded  to  their  wish.  The  proceeding 
was  unusual  and  has  never  been  repeated  in  our 
history,  so  far  as  I  know. 

I  do  not  know  if  there  be  any  here  who  know 
that  he  once  contemplated  taking  Orders.  I  well 
remember  our  talks  on  this  subject  and  his  final 
conclusion  which  launched  him  upon  his  educational 
career  from  which  he  never  again  swerved.  His 

[20] 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  BRATTON 


call  to  his  Professorship  and  to  the  service  of  his 
Alma  Mater  by  the  unanimous  and  constraining 
voice  of  his  fellows  was  rightly  regarded  by  him 
as  too  altogether  singular  to  be  without  sacred 
significance.  It  discovered  to  him  the  ideal  of  his 
life,  and  in  pursuing  it  he  gave  his  best  self,  day  by 
day,  to  the  task.  Life  to  him  was  ministry . 

From  this  all-too-brief  sketch  of  his  early  Sewa- 
nee  life,  my  brothers  of  the  Alumni  will  discover 
the  secret  of  that  wonderfully  close  relation  which 
Wiggins  bore  to  us  all.  He  was  our  first  Alumnus 
on  the  Faculty,  literally  put  there  by  his  brothers. 
He  was  our  first-fruits  offered  to  the  beloved 
Mother.  He,  the  modest  boy  (he  was  just 
twenty-one,  I  think),  in  his  own  eyes  the  untried 
boy,  shrinking  from  both  the  honor  and  the  re¬ 
sponsibility  which  his  fellows  forced  upon  him,  was 
the  first  among  his  brethren  chosen  to  win  the 
victory  of  high  service  and  deserved  distinction. 
Others  had  served  us  in  less  conspicuous  posts, 
others  who  were  destined  to  achieve  distinction  in 
the  world  of  science  and  letters  and  religion.  But 
it  was  Wiggins,  the  true,  loyal,  faithful,  able, 
steady  youth  of  our  love  and  our  pride  who  was 
thought  worthy  to  be  the  offering  of  her  sons  to 
the  Alma  Mater  in  the  day  of  her  greatest  need. 
There  are  some  of  us  here  who  well  remember  the 
ghastly  depression  pf  that  period,  of  a  defeated 
Board  of  Trustees  and  a  grandly  loyal  Faculty, 
when,  but  for  the  devotion  of  the  latter,  our  doors 
would  have  been  closed  and  the  splendid  ideal  of 

[21] 


BENJAMIN  LAWTON  WIGGINS 


our  fathers  forever  lost.  It  was  at  this  moment 
that  Wiggins  was  offered  both  as  the  pledge  of  our 
undying  love  for  our  Alma  Mater  and  as  the  best 
that  we  had  to  offer.  This,  I  know,  was  the 
spirit  of  his  great  heart’s  motive,  that  he  had  been 
offered  up  upon  the  altar  of  love.  Was  it  strange 
that  he  should  henceforth  decline  all  efforts  to  lure 
him  away  from  this  Mountain-top  ?  Was  it 
strange  that  such  a  man  as  Wiggins  should  find  his 
complete  satisfaction  in  a  life  of  sacrifice  to  the 
cause  to  which  both  he  and  his  brothers  had  con¬ 
secrated  him  ? 

Many  of  us  doubtless  have  forgotten,  and  many 
more  never  knew,  the  sacredness  of  the  tie  which 
bound  him  to  us  and  impelled  his  willing  service 
at  all  times,  of  the  Association  of  which  he  was  in 
so  signal  a  manner  the  heart  and  light.  But  he 
never  forgot.  Through  all  the  years  of  struggle 
with  Sewanee’s  poverty  he  did  the  day’s  duty  with 
all  his  heart  and  strength  and  wrested  victory 
where  less  stout  hearts  and  weaker  hands  and  lives 
unconsecrated,  would  have  relinquished  the  une¬ 
qual  contest.  From  first  to  last  his  life  has  been 
one  of  consistent  and  persistent  self-sacrifice. 

Brothers  of  the  Alumni,  the  example  of  Wig¬ 
gins’  life  must  not  be  lost  to  us.  Other  there  are 
deserving  of  as  much  honor  and  reverence,  but 
Wiggins  was  one  of  us.  He  belonged  to  us.  In 
a  special  sense  he  has  represented  twenty-seven 
years  of  our  devotion  to  our  Alma  Mater.  He  is 
our  vicarious  sacrifice — a  sacrifice  which  must  be 

[22] 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  BRATTON 


justified  by  that  which  we  his  brothers  shall  con¬ 
tinue  in  our  striving  to  realize  the  absorbing  pur¬ 
pose  of  Wiggins’  life. 

In  such  a  connection  I  pass  over,  with  a  mere 
hint  of  the  facts,  the  record  of  the  offices  he  held 
in  our  Association.  To  him  an  office  was  never  only 
what  it  is  in  itself — it  was  the  occasion  for  service 
and  the  condition  of  duty.  His  life  has  been  an 
example  of  steadiness  of  purpose,  of  devotion  to 
an  ideal,  of  self-forgetful  love  for  our  Alma  Mater, 
of  unswerving  fidelity  to  the  trust  bestowed  by 
his  fellow- students.  His  death  is  a  call  to  duty,  to 
the  re-awakening  of  love  in  us,  to  the  renewing  of 
our  own  consecration  to  the  ideal  which  our  great 
and  beloved  Alma  Mater  represents,  and  for  which 
our  beloved  Wiggins  laid  down  his  life ! 


[23] 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  RIGHT  REVEREND 
WILLIAM  ALEXANDER  GUERRY,  D.D., 
BISHOP  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA,  REPRE¬ 
SENTING  THE  BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES 


ADDRESS  OE  BISHOP  GUERRY 


* 

I  BELIEVE  that  1  am  the  only  one  here  offi¬ 
cially  connected  with  the  University  whose 
acquaintance  with  our  late  beloved  Vice-Chan¬ 
cellor  antedates  his  coming  to  Sewanee.  We  were 
boys  together  at  the  Porter  Military  Academy, 
Charleston,  S.  C.,  in  1876.  I  have  been  his  friend 
for  more  than  thirty-three  years.  I  have  both 
studied  with  him  as  his  fellow-student  in  the  same 
school,  and  I  have  studied  under  him  as  one  who 
was  proud  to  be  called  his  pupil. 

It  is  most  fitting  then  that  I  should  stand  here 
to  pay  my  tribute  of  love  and  respect  to  his  revered 
memory  not  only  because  of  the  long  and  intimate 
relations  which  have  existed  between  us,  but  also 
because  on  this  occasion  I  have  the  honor  to  repre¬ 
sent  both  his  native  State  and  Diocese,  as  well  as 
the  members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees.  I  shall 
not,  of  course,  in  the  brief  space  allowed  me 
attempt  to  give  anything  like  an  adequate  estimate 
of  his  life  and  labors.  That  task  is  reserved  for 
the  future  historian  of  the  University  who,  with 
all  the  facts  before  him,  shall  estimate  correctly  the 
permanent  contribution  which  Dr.  Wiggins  has 
made  to  Sewanee  and  to  the  great  cause  of  Chris¬ 
tian  education. 

There  is,  however,  one  quality  of  his  mind  and 
heart  of  which  I  wish  to  make  special  mention 
here,  because  I  believe  that  it  was  the  most  dis¬ 
tinctive,  the  most  fundamental,  and  the  most 

[27] 


BENJAMIN  LAWTON  WIGGINS 


widely  recognized  and  accepted  characteristic  of 
the  man.  I  refer  to  his  large-hearted,  large-minded 
and  never- failing  charity.  He  was  the  most  for¬ 
giving,  the  most  forbearing,  and  the  most  uniformly 
kind  gentleman  I  have  almost  ever  known.  He 
was  without  malice.  He  seemed  incapable  of 
bearing  ill-will  or  of  harboring  resentment  against 
anyone.  He  was  truly  great  in  the  absolutely  im¬ 
personal  way  in  which  he  could  view  any  question 
and  discuss  any  subject  solely  upon  its  merits  and 
quite  independently  of  the  attitude  of  mind  or 
character  of  those  who  agreed  with  or  differed 
from  him. 

No  man  ever  administered  a  great  trust  or 
occupied  his  high  position  with  less  friction,  or  who 
possessed  in  a  greater  degree  the  happy  faculty  of 
reconciling  differencqs  and  of  enabling  men  of 
many  different  temperaments  and  points  of  view 
to  work  harmoniously  together  in  one  great  cause, 
than  our  late  Vice-Chancellor.  His  charity  was 
not  due  to  lack  of  conviction  or  to  mere  amiability 
of  disposition,  but  to  a  deep  and  sincere  love  for 
his  fellow-men,  coupled  with  the  greatness  of  his 
intellect  and  the  breadth  of  his  sympathies,  which 
gave  him  his  remarkable  insight  into  human  nature, 
and  that  warm,  loving  and  personal  interest  which 
he  took  in  the  affairs  of  all  those  who  were  in  any 
way  associated  with  him.  I  venture  the  assertion 
that  there  is  no  one  within  the  sound  of  my  voice, 
who  has  lived  at  Sewanee  in  recent  years,  who  has 
not  at  some  time  experienced  his  kindness  or  been 

[28] 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  GUERRY 


indebted  to  him  for  some  act  of  more  than  ordinary 
thoughtfulness  and  generosity. 

For  this  reason  he  was  to  me  the  greatest  living 
embodiment  of  the  truth  of  the  words  of  our 
motto,  Ecce  quam  bonum  —  ‘  ‘  Behold  how  good 
and  joyful  a  thing  it  is,  brethren,  to  dwell  together 
in  unity.  ’  ’  Those  clasped  hands  upon  the  seal  of 
the  University  surmounted  by  the  cross  of  the 
living  Christ  are  a  most  fitting  and  most  beautiful 
symbol  of  his  life. 

There  is  much  more  that  I  could  say  and  much 
more  that  I  would  like  to  say.  But  to  me  the 
thing  by  which  I  will  remember  him  longest  and 
for  which  I  love  him  most  is  that  greatest  of  all  the 
Christian  virtues  —  Charity.  ‘  ‘  N ow  abideth  these 
three :  Faith,  Hope,  Charity.  But  the  greatest  of 
these  is  Charity. 5  ’  Surely  no  words  could  more 
fittingly  and  appropriately  be  applied  to  him  than 
those  of  the  Epistle  for  this  week  which  were  read 
at  the  early  service  yesterday  morning  when  his 
body  lay  in  state  in  this  chapel :  ‘  ‘  Beloved,  let  us 
love  one  another,  for  love  is  of  God;  and  every¬ 
one  that  loveth  is  born  of  God  and  knoweth  God.  ” 
(I  St.  John,  iv.  7.) 

May  we  not  then  venture  to  believe  that  because 
of  his  great  love  for  his  fellow  men  and  for  his 
Father  in  Heaven,  Benjamin  Lawton  Wiggins  is 
permitted  to  behold  the  King  in  his  beauty,  Who 
with  Thee,  O  Father,  and  Thee,  O  Holy  Ghost, 
liveth  and  reigneth  ever,  one  God,  world  without 
end. 


[29] 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REVEREND  WIL¬ 
LIAM  PORCHER  DuBOSE,  S.T.D.,  DEAN 
EMERITUS  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL 
DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY, 
REPRESENTING  THE  HEBDOMADAL 
BOARD 


ADDRESS  OF  DOCTOR  DuBOSE 


* 

I  INTERPRET  this  solemn  function  in  which 
we  are  here  to  engage  as  an  act  of  recognition 
and  acknowledgement  of  the  most  direct  and 
complete  gift  of  a  life  yet  made  to  Sewanee ; —  and 
again,  on  Sewanee’s  part,  as  an  offering  up  of  the 
costliest  sacrifice  of  her  life  that  she  has  yet  laid 
upon  the  altar  of  service  as  she  sees  it.  For  the 
life  that  has  just  gone  up  from  our  midst  was  about 
as  completely  that  of  Sewanee  itself  as  it  was  possi¬ 
ble  for  it  to  have  been  made ;  as  much  of  the  com¬ 
plex  total  of  community  life  here  had  been  drawn 
and  concentrated  into  it  as  could  have  been  in 
one  mortal  man.  Sewanee  was  himself  to  its  Vice- 
Chancellor,  and  as  much  as  he  could,  he  made 
himself  Sewanee. 

This  came  about,  if  to  a  very  unusual  extent, 
yet  in  a  very  gradual  and  natural  way.  Benjamin 
Lawton  Wiggins  came  here  a  boy  fresh  from  school 
and  at  the  earliest  age  at  which  he  could  have 
entered  the  University.  The  day  of  his  entrance 
was  the  beginning  of  that  series  of  eminent  services 
which  have  just  ended — if  they  have  ended.  The 
very  first  was  not  the  least  of  these  services.  I 
have  had  occasion  to  think  much,  and  sometimes 
to  talk,  of  the  Makers  of  Sewanee.  Not  least  or 
fewest  of  these  have  been  students — and  I  do  not 
mean  students  after  they  had  left  here ;  but  stu¬ 
dents  while  they  were  here.  There  is  nothing  that 
so  makes  an  institution  like  this  as  the  current 

[33] 


BENJAMIN  LAWTON  WIGGINS 


quality,  character,  and  active  cooperation  and  con¬ 
tribution  of  its  student  body.  We  have  often  been 
able  to  say  things  deeply  gratifying  to  ourselves  of 
our  student  body  as  a  class,  as  a  whole.  But 
there  have  always  been  students  who  have  stood 
out  by  themselves,  as  types  and  leaders  and  stan¬ 
dards  for  the  whole ;  and  this,  not  only  in  scholar¬ 
ship,  but  in  action  and  character,  in  that  finished 
and  rounded  personality  which  is  the  true  goal  and 
end  of  university  life.  I  am  thinking  now  not  of 
one  man  but  of  a  number  who  live  in  my  memory, 
and  whom,  with  the  one  or  two  in  this  community 
of  my  contemporaries  of  the  earlier  and  plastic 
days,  I  gratefully  and  lovingly  recall.  Those  boys 
had  much  to  do  with  the  real  making  of  Sewanee, 
as  I  know,  who  lived  and  worked  with  them. 
Lawton  Wiggins  was  an  ideal  student;  all  of  Se¬ 
wanee  passed  into  and  lived  in  him.  While 
yet  an  undergraduate  he  had  acted  and  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  every  possible  capacity,  as  tutor,  proctor, 
or  what  not.  The  natural  steps  that  followed 
without  break  to  Assistant  Professor,  Professor, 
Vice-Chancellor,  efficient,  all-absorbent,  accepted 
and  acceptable  dictator, — all  came  by  such  imper¬ 
ceptible,  unconscious,  and  unselfish,  un-self-seeking 
gradations — out  of  pure  oneness  with  Sewanee  as 
the  only  self  he  knew, — that  there  was  nothing  in 
it  strange,  or  possible  to  be  otherwise,  to  us  who 
followed  the  process. 

That  mysterious  detective  knowledge  of  all  that 
was  going  on  or  being  thought  of  in  the  Univer- 

[34] 


ADDRESS  OF  DOCTOR  DuBOSE 


sity  or  the  community  —  coupled  with  a  secret  and 
kindly  tact  in  dealing  with  it  —  which,  like  a  kind 
of  sixth  sense,  characterized  Tutor  or  Proctor  or 
Professor  or  Vice-Chancellor  Wiggins  in  his  best 
days,  was  no  great  mystery  to  those  who  knew 
how  naturally  and  wholly  he  had  grown  into  all 
that  was  Sewanee,  and  all  Sewanee  into  him. 

I  have  not  the  time  —  nor  is  it  yet  the  time — to 
analyze  and  measure  the  unusual  personal  gifts, 
powers,  and  character  of  Dr.  Wiggins,  nor  yet  to 
balance  up  the  long  list  of  his  eminent  services  to 
this  University.  That  must  be  an  interesting  and 
important  chapter  of  our  permanent  history.  Nor 
shall  I  venture  to  give  voice  to  the  general  and 
common  grief  and  sense  of  loss  that  speaks  for 
itself  in  us  all. 

More  specially  I  have  been  requested  to  repre¬ 
sent  the  Hebdomadal  Board  this  morning,  in  a 
moment  which  must  necessarily  be  fraught  with 
more  immediate  meaning  and  concern  for  them  than 
for  any  others.  I  recall  the  occasion  —  indeed  the 
exact  moment  and  manner — in  which  Assistant 
Professor  Wiggins  entered  and  took  his  modest 
seat  at  the  foot  of  the  table,  around  which  in  one 
of  our  primitive  rooms,  and  in  those  more  military 
days,  we  sat  in  strict  order  of  seniority.  He  was 
for  long  a  silent,  but  not  long  an  idle  or  inefficient 
member.  I  watched  how  quietly  and  intently  he 
took  in  and  mastered  every  least  detail  of  university 
business  or  interest;  how  by  sheer  attention  and 
ability  and  efficiency  he  grew  into  an  indispensable 

[35] 


BENJAMIN  LAWTON  WIGGINS 


and  necessary  factor.  He  and  I  were  the  original, 
infant,  Schedule  Committee,  sitting  constantly  in 
the  effort  to  reduce  our  somewhat  intractable 
material  and  chaotic  instruction  to  something  like 
system  and  order.  I  contributed  what  of  idea  or 
of  practice  had  been  ingrained  in  me  at  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Virginia;  he  did  the  rest,  and  was  the 
rest,  in  that  and  other  matters,  until  the  coming  in 
of  the  more  modern  Faculty.  What  then  and 
always  struck  me  as  characteristic  of  him  was  an 
unusual  effacement  of  self,  at  least  of  any  intrusion 
or  appearance  of  self,  in  matters  of  public  interest 
or  business.  That  may  have  been  a  general  char¬ 
acteristic  with  him,  but  it  was  none  the  less  a  part 
of  his  gradual  absorption  and  loss  of  himself  in  the 
larger  life  of  Sewanee. 

Of  Dr.  Wiggins’  gradual  rise  and  final  long 
session  at  the  head  of  the  Hebdomadal  Board,  I 
need  say  nothing  among  ourselves.  This  more 
modern  Board  has  been  one  with  no  lack  of  per¬ 
sonal,  individual,  even  variant  initiation  and  in¬ 
dependence.  There  have  never  hesitated  to  enter 
into  it  all  needful  differences  and  discussions  of 
opinion  and  policy.  With  a  few  pardonable  and 
not  unamiable  or  unlovely  exceptions,  personal 
feelings,  interests,  or  antagonisms  have  never 
entered  into  it,  as  occasionally  they  did  in  the 
earlier  and  harder  days.  The  selfless  devotion, 
the  courtesy  and  consideration,  the  personal  charm 
and  social  delicacy  and  tact  of  our  late  Vice-Chan¬ 
cellor  were  not  among  the  least  causes  of  a  unity 

[36] 


ADDRESS  OF  DOCTOR  DuBOSE 


and  harmony  and  single-minded  devotion  to  its  in¬ 
terests  which  I  cannot  but  think  exceptionally 
characterizes  the  governing  body  of  this  University. 

A  pall  of  gloom  rests  upon  us  all;  I  meet  it 
wherever  I  turn;  I  confess  that  it  has  so  rested 
upon  myself  as  to  have  disqualified  me  for  this 
function.  Yet  there  is  another  side,  on  which  I 
think  we  should  sufficiently  rise  above  ourselves  to 
be  able  to  look.  There  is  a  dramatic  roundness 
and  completeness,  an  appropriateness  and  propriety 
in  the  moment  and  the  manner  of  the  death  we 
are  deploring,  which  cannot  but  have  impressed  us 
all,  which  we  ought  not  to  overlook  or  underesti¬ 
mate.  Has  not  our  friend  chosen  the  better  part, 
which  shall  not  be  taken  from  him  ?  —  He  elected 
to  spend  himself,  and  he  is  spent;  he  elected  to 
give  his  life,  and  it  is  given.  I  recall  the  old 
saying,  that  only  the  Death  sets  its  seal  upon  — 
completes  and  crowns  the  Life.  Surely  if  ever  one 
died  as  he  had  lived,  died  in  the  very  act  of  the 
service  he  had  loved  and  for  which  he  had  lived,  it 
was  he  whom  we  are  here  to  mourn.  His  life  was 
given  for  us, —  let  us  accept  it,  thank  God,  and 
take  heart! 


[37] 


MEMORIAL  ODE  BY  WILLIAM  NOR¬ 
MAN  GUTHRIE,  M.A.,  ALUMNUS  AND 
DIRECTOR  OF  THE  UNIVERSTY  EX¬ 
TENSION  DEPARTMENT 


MEMORIAL  ODE  BY  MR.  GUTHRIE 


* 

First  of  us,  chosen  to  lead  us, 

And  followed  with  faith, 

W  e  call  to  thee !  — Hearken  and  heed  us, 

Who  cheer  thee  in  death. 

II 

No  shame  if  sorrow  hath  wrung  us 
And  anxious  fears ; 

For  wast  thou  not  boy  once  among  us 
Four  happy  years  ? 

III 

Forest  and  rock  hast  thou  cherished 
With  filial  pride; 

For  thee  budded  and  bloomed  and  perished 
Our  blossom-tide ; 

IV 

Glorious  for  thee  our  October 
Burned  year  after  year ; 

Wet  winter-woods,  wistful  and  sober, 

To  thee  likewise  were  dear ; 

v 

White  moonlight  on  twinkling  branches ; 

Stars  caught  in  their  mesh ; 

The  far-spreading  plains  that  enfranchise 
The  eye  from  the  flesh ; 

VI 

From  the  coves  the  kine- bells’  sweet  clanging, 
Thou  hast  broodingly  heard ; 

And  the  thrushes’  and  red-birds’  haranguing  — 
Thy  fancy  hath  stirred. 

[41] 


BENJAMIN  LAWTON  WIGGINS 


VII 

No  wonder  our  heart-beats  quicken 
As  we  think  of  thee  now; 

Our  foremost,  unfaltering,  stricken  — 
Death’s  calm  on  thy  brow! 

VIII 

Thou  foughtest  our  battles  bravely. 

And  wroughtest  for  all; 

In  peril,  thou  smiledst  gravely, 

At  failure  or  fall; 


IX 

With  unfailing  fidelity  ever 
Our  weakness  to  hide, 

Silent  in  steadfast  endeavor 
When  doubted,  denied. 

X 

To  the  right,  to  the  left,  thou  didst  look  not, 
But  thy  life  thou  didst  give ; 

And,  wonted  to  serve,  thou  couldst  brook  not 
Thy  work  to  outlive. 

XI 

In  the  hour  of  thy  weakness  not  daunted, 

Thy  brethren  were  true; 

And  they  proffered  thee  aid  unwanted 
Thy  duty  to  do : 


XII 

But  thou  hadst  thy  day’s  work  finished, 

N  or  bidding  farewell : 

Thou  went’st  forth  with  power  undiminished, 
So  their  cheers  were  thy  knell. 

[42] 


MEMORIAL  ODE  BY  MR.  GUTHRIE 


XIII 

Ha,  first  of  us  wert  thou  chosen 
As  faithfullest  found ! 

Then  how  shall  thy  soul  repose  in 
Mere  hallowed  ground? 

XIV 

In  us,  yea  in  us,  thine  abiding, 

Thy  spirit  and  life; 

Still  in  our  councils  presiding, 
Allayer  of  strife ; 

XV 

Alone  in  great  patience  sustaining 
The  brunt  of  the  day; 

Thy  wisdom,  guiding,  restraining, 
With  magnanimous  sway; 

XVI 

For  wrongs  —  thy  large  forgiving, 
For  follies — thy  grace; 

Yea  in  us,  thou  in  us  art  still  living, 
And  none  shall  replace. 

XVII 

So  our  selfish  sorrow  we  smother 
For  thee  who  art  dear; 

Who  hail  thee  yet  leader  and  brother 
And  heartily  cheer; 

XVIII 

By  thy  faithful  spirit  new-plighted, 
Made  strong  of  thy  soul, 

We  march,  thy  brothers,  united, 
Unafraid  to  thy  goal! 

[43] 


